Liam Lawson has kept his nose clean to come home in fifth place in the Monaco Grand Prix, after a chaotic race featured seven retirements and plenty of penalties.
The race immediately started with drama as Lawson almost did not make the start due to a car issue, which Racing Bulls was able to fix just in time – leaving the Kiwi able to start the race from tenth.
Lawson immediately climbed up to ninth on the start as Max Verstappen suffered from power-unit issues, leaving him behind Lando Norris and ahead of Alex Albon.
Valtteri Bottas soon became the second retirement of the race on lap fifteen, and was joined by Ollie Bearman, who retired not long after.
George Russell was cleared of a penalty after looking to be out of his grid box on the start. Meanwhile, Kimi Antontelli held a comfortable lead over Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
On lap thirty-two, Lewis Hamilton received a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, dealing a blow to his podium hopes.
Battles started to form through the pack, as Norris and Gasly started to fight, along with Hadjar and Russell. It became clear this would be a race decided by strategy, as teams prioritised creating a gap on track to make a clean stop.
Lawson eventually came into the lane on lap forty-six, bolting on soft compound tyres. At the same time, Norris retired from the race with battery issues, making him the fourth retirement of the race.
The first safety car came out on lap sixty-one as Lance Stroll found the barrier on the last corner of the track. Once the race went green, another safety car was called after Charles Leclerc found the wall in the same spot Stroll did. His crash exposed issues with the tarmac breaking up and the race was soon red-flagged.
As the red flag came out, Gasly and Oscar Piastri received a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, a common occurrence during the race.
The race was paused for forty-five minutes and resumed for an eight-lap sprint. At the same time, Gasly received another five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane again, while Russell was dealt a drive-through penalty for failing to serve an earlier penalty.
On the restart, Hulkenburg got into the side of Sainz through the hairpin, sending Sainz into the wall and leaving him out of the race, with Colapinto getting caught up in the chaos. Lawson remained in sixth position, benefiting from the penalties for drivers ahead and other retirements.
After some late race pressure from Lindblad, Lawson crossed the line in sixth position, but was soon promoted to fifth as Gasly was demoted to seventh for failing to serve his penalties. This meant Lawson left Monaco matching his career best result, whilst bringing home ten points for Racing Bulls, and left him ninth in the drivers’ championship.
Antonelli was able to control the field to take his fifth straight win, ahead of Hamilton and Isack Hadjar, who kept his podium after an investigation during the red flag period.
Formula 1 heads to Barcelona next, with on-track action starting on the 12th of June at 11:30 pm NZST.
